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“Cawafower rice, pink fish and beans amadee.”
“That’s right.” I translate, “Pink fish, otherwise known as salmon, served over cauliflower rice with green beans almondine.”
“I know I always tell you it’s too much effort and not to bother, but I’m starving and this smells unbelievably good.”
“Enjoy.”
Walking to the foyer to grab my coat and bag, I’m just about to say goodnight when he stops me. “Can you stay and have dinner with us?”
“Um, I just figured you’d want some alone time with—”
“Stay, Skylar.” Libby pleads in her sing-song voice.
“I won’t feel good about eating this food knowing you’re going back to eat at the campus dining hall. I don’t remember the food being all that appetizing. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t like this,” he says as he starts spooning food onto the plates I set out on the counter.
What the hell. It does smell great, and it’s late, so the cafeteria will be limited to those fried chicken sandwiches and burgers at this hour. “Ok.”
Libby puts a napkin down at each place and I get the utensils. We fill the cups from the water dispenser and sit down just as Leo puts our plates in front of us.
“Daddy, Sky showed me how to get bones out today.”
“Yeah?”
I cover my mouth. “The salmon. I showed her how to use a tweezers to get the bones out.”
“Nice. You’re learning life skills, little girl.”
Then he takes a mouthful and flat-out moans. And I want to moan right along with him because watching him eat is like porn for this sex-starved girl. Who knew that watching a man enjoy the food you’ve prepared for him is such a turn on? Hmm, maybe that’s just my own personal kink.
We eat in peaceful silence for a few minutes, and when I allow myself to look at him again, I see that his eyes are fixed on Libby. Her table manners could use some work, but I don’t think he’s focused on that. I’m used to the fact that she’s done a complete one-eighty where vegetables are concerned, but I think he’s still taken by the site of her munching on string beans or scooping mashed sweet potatoes into her little mouth.
“Good stuff, Olivia. Thank you, both of you, for cooking this delicious dinner.”
“You’re welcome,” the two of us say in unison, and then Olivia breaks into a fit of giggles.
In the next moment, Olivia slaps her hand on the table and looks up to her father with a sudden sense of urgency. “Daddy, I can go see the baby. You say yes, right?”
“Oh.” I wipe my mouth and then stand up to bring my plate to the sink. “Olivia asked if she could come with me one time to visit after my sister’s baby is born. I told her we had to ask you first.”
Libby puts a hand up to each side of her head, wiggles and makes a wide-eyed goofy face. “Sky said I gonna lose my mind when I meet her sister.”
Now I’m doubled over laughing because she’s freaking adorable, and Leo is looking back and forth between the two of us like we’ve already lost our minds.
“I showed Libby a picture, but it’s nothing like seeing the two of us side by side. It freaks people out sometimes.”
“I’m gonna be a mommy and have twin babies when I get big.”
He coughs. “That’s a loooong way off, little lady.” Then looking to me, he asks, “You and your sister are twins?”
“I thought I mentioned it.”
“No.”
I pull my phone out of my back pocket and pull up the most recent picture of the two of us. Garth took it a few weeks ago. It’s simple, just the two of us sitting side by side on the couch with our heads tilted in towards one another. I know who’s who, but I realize that to most people we look like mirror images of the other.
Olivia wedges herself in between her father and the table. “See?” She’s pointing to the screen. “They the same.”
“Wow. Identical.”
